Gordan Ramsey's Ultimate Cookery Course - TV review

The angry blonde was either going to have to watch his language, or Channel 4 programmers would have to spend hours bleeping out all his expletives.

However, it seems the best way to keep Gordon happy, and polite, is leave him in the kitchen by himself, which is what happened in Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course.

Dressed in a black T-shirt he seemed quite happy being by himself, no one to shout at – and passing on his finely honed skills to the people at home.

His recipes seemed really easy to follow and those of you feeling guilty for frying too much – don't worry. It seems the frying pan is actually your best friend and will give you a lot of confidence in the kitchen.

Gordon kicked off the show with four recipes that can be cooked in a frying pan – pan fried pork chops with sweet and sour peppers, pan fried scallops with crunchy apple salad, chicken and chicory in masala sauce and sea bream with a tomato and herb salsa. The talented chef moved around the kitchen at such a fast pace it was sometimes difficult to keep up with him – definitely not the kind of show you can watch and copy the recipes at the same time.

It is easy to see why Gordon does get so angry when he is working with other people as he is so fast and efficient, everyone else must seem slow and clumsy in comparison.

As Gordon himself tells us, he has been cooking in professional kitchens for over 25 years.

He's been taught by some of the best chefs in the world and in turn taught some of the best.

In the first show of this new series, Gordon comes across as passionate about passing on his skills, stripping away the complexity behind some recipes and teaching people at home to cook delicious food very easily.

His first four recipes can all be cooked in around 15 minutes and they look incredible. My mouth was watering as I watched the fried food being placed elegantly on a plate, and each one had the wow factor. The pasta I had lined up for my own dinner suddenly didn't seem that appetising.

Next Gordon taught us to make a stuffed chicken – but this wasn't any old stuffing. It included cured chorizo, onions, fresh thyme and cannellini beans.

The tasty looking mixture was then stuffed into the chicken, a lemon was wedged in the opening of the bird and it was then baked in the oven.

Thank goodness his recipes are available online as he went so fast it was just a feast for the eyes and enough to make you want to check out his website for all the ingredients.

Even though the show was only half an hour long – and that included a commercial break, he was also able to fit in advice on how to keep your knives sharp, how to stop your chopping board from moving around when you work on it, using a peeler on everything from chocolate to parmesan, how to get different sized grains from your pepper mill and the best way to bash garlic.

It was all simple, healthy exciting ingredients – and without an F-word in sight I think Gordon Ramsay will be winning himself a new legion of fans.

Cathy Spencer